About the Data Spaces Support Centre

Who we are

The support centre for Europe's data spaces

Many data spaces in Europe have moved past the pilot stage and now have to prove they can run on their own. The DSSC works with them to get there. The project is funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme and coordinated by Fraunhofer.

The technical side is largely solved. A decade of joint work produced the Blueprint and the building blocks that data spaces implement today, and standardisation bodies have taken them forward.

What decides whether a data space lasts is its economics. Every participant has to gain from taking part, and the ecosystem as a whole has to pay for itself. Since May 2026 this is the question the DSSC puts first, with particular attention to what small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to join. The measure of success is how many data spaces run on their own terms when the project ends in 2029.

Support starts with a maturity assessment, now a technical specification maintained by CEN and CENELEC, which shows where an initiative stands. Value Coaches then work one to one on its value proposition and business model, and Sector Orchestrators bring in what has already worked in the same sector. Every initiative leaves knowing what to do next.

The DSSC in numbers

Built for scale across Europe

32

Organizations

14

Industrial sectors covered by the CEDS

4

Objectives guiding the work

3

Years of the second DSSC project phase

Sustainable data spaces

Making trusted data sharing pay off

Data spaces across Europe are moving into operation. Their participants now expect a return on the data they share and the effort they invest. The DSSC works with initiatives on concrete use cases and business models that hold up without public funding, so that data spaces grow, attract users and stay in operation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the priority, because scale in Europe runs through them.

Goals and impact

Four ways the DSSC supports data spaces

Coaching and acceleration

Hands-on support for the Common European Data Spaces on their way to business viability. Value Coaches work one to one with each initiative, and when several face the same problem, the DSSC runs a joint acceleration sprint and shares the result with all.

Knowledge sharing

A platform where the whole community finds proven practices, solutions and success stories. Dedicated formats serve SMEs and the open-source community, and the DSSC works closely with standardisation bodies and with organisations in the Member States.

Guidance assets

The Blueprint gives data spaces a common template and reusable building blocks for technical, business and governance questions. The DSSC keeps the Blueprint and the Toolbox current, adds a Cookbook for newcomers and supports initiatives in putting them to use.

Observatory and roadmap

A data space observatory tracks how data spaces develop across Europe and reports on progress. A roadmap sets out actions for all stakeholders and aligns data spaces with Europe's strategic AI initiatives, including the AI factories that depend on trustworthy data.

The consortium

23 partners from across Europe

The Data Spaces Support Centre is delivered by a consortium of 23 organisations from across Europe, coordinated by Fraunhofer. It combines non-profit associations that represent several hundred member organisations, research and technology organisations with an independent view of the field, consultancy firms with hands-on experience in data space projects and domain networks that connect sectors.